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Panetta ordered the military-wide review Tuesday shortly after the Army disclosed problems with security background checks of workers at Fort Myer. Pentagon press secretary George Little said department leaders were surprised to hear of the problems and that "clearly this information did not get reported up the chain of command as quickly as we think it should have."

A defense official said McHugh was first notified of the problems last Friday because, prior to that, it was considered a local law enforcement matter. The official, however, said authorities at Fort Myer took quick action after the Sept. 26th arrests by alerting parents, and began a steadily expanding review of people and policies during October and November.

According to officials, one person was charged with four counts of assault on children and the other was charged with five counts of assault. The alleged actions included hitting, grabbing or pushing the children. In the days after the arrests, the two administrators were dismissed, others were brought in and town hall meetings took place with parents.

Asked about the timing, Army spokesman George Wright said the local installation commander at Fort Myer took immediate action after the arrests to address the problems, and over time officials did some random background checks of employees. When those checks revealed some criminal convictions, every worker's background was then reviewed.

Wright said it's not as though the arrests happened and nothing was done. "There were deliberate, prudent and cautious actions taken" as more and more information was learned over the past three months, he said.

Officials, however, said it remained unclear if the initial background checks were not done, were insufficient or simply were ignored during the screening of personnel as they were hired.

"We need to do everything we can wherever our children are entrusted to the care of DOD-employed personnel to insure we have the right personnel with the right background taking care of them," Little said. "We want to insure that there's consistency in the standards and policies and practices in hiring wherever military youth are involved."